Dogs, Motherhood, and Reproductive Choices: A Qualitative Study of Women’s Decision-Making in a Pronatalist Country

Ivett Szalma, Lóránt Pélyi, Orsolya Udvari, Kata Mária Udvarhelyi-Tóth, Erika Kispéter, Enikő Kubinyi, Institute for Sociology, ELTE Centre for Social Sciences, Institute of Social and Political Sciences, Corvinus University, HCSO Institute for Quantitative Population and Economic Research, Department of Ethology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, MTA-ELTE Lendület , Companion Animal Research Group, ESRC Centre for Care, Department of Health Services Research and Policy, London School of Hygiene , Tropical Medicine

Journal of Family Issues

Published online on July 07, 2026

Abstract

Journal of Family Issues, Ahead of Print.
This article examines how dog-owning women in Hungary make sense of childbearing in a strongly pronatalist context. Drawing on 28 semi-structured interviews with highly educated urban women aged 25–45 (childless or with one child) and using the Theory of ...